Grand Theft Auto 6: Car-top twerking, flamingos in a loopy Miami

South Florida. A spot the place sea, sand and horny are at all times in season.

A spot the place the world’s most well-known footballer scores match-winning objectives in flamingo pink.

And a spot the place a multibillionaire considers learn how to commercialise area journey.

When Lionel Messi and Jeff Bezos moved to Miami this yr, they added a sure shimmer to a metropolis already well-known for its sparkle.

But there is a darkish aspect, a legal underbelly, too.

The intersection of those worlds was on full show this week in the course of the trailer launch of Grand Theft Auto 6.

Its emergence ended a decade-long streak of relative silence from Rockstar, the sport’s creators, and broke YouTube data, grabbing 93 million views in 24 hours.

The video was described by LeBron James in a tweet as “INSANE”. And it grew to become probably the most considered content material on the platform – excluding music movies – in lower than a day.

The 90-second teaser confirmed the sport shall be set in Vice City, a hyper-fictionalised model of Miami, and it instantly sparked debates on-line over how honest and real looking this depiction was.

It showcased lots of Miami’s cultural landmarks – seashore joggers and boat partiers, luxurious automobiles and rooftop swimming pools. Neon-lit streets. Flamingos.

(Yes, there are literally flamingos. The cotton-candy colored birds will be seen on the Hialeah Park Racing and Casino.)

But there was additionally a special aspect of the town on show.

A crocodile crept via a comfort retailer, strippers danced over greenback payments and shotgun-wielding police kicked down a door.

The sight of a girl twerking atop a dashing automotive appeared other-worldly absurd, nevertheless it blended in seamlessly with what gave the impression to be actual replicas of Miami’s basketball enviornment Kaseya Center and murals within the Wynwood neighbourhood.

It was this exact mixture of the inconceivable and the precise that blurred the traces between reality and fiction.

That was precisely the intention for Rockstar, the builders behind the GTA sequence, in line with Chris Livingston, senior editor at PC Gamer, a number one gaming publication.

“These [GTA games] are based on real American cities, and it’s those tiny details that really bring it to life,” Mr Livingston instructed the BBC.

“So much of what’s in the games is based on real stuff. The developers are from the UK, so it’s kind of their spin on a really exaggerated take on US culture.”

Mr Livingston described what was within the GTA 6 trailer as an intentional “tongue-in-cheek satire of the worst of American culture”.

But folks on social media have been fast to level out the place scenes from the trailer truly appeared in actuality.

For occasion, the lady twerking on the automotive, the indignant previous girl holding a hammer in every hand, the tattoo-faced legal with purple hair – these have been all photos that made headlines in south Florida information.

Mr Livingston known as these moments “great fodder” for Rockstar’s builders, and mentioned it allowed them so as to add unbelievable element by mirroring “the bizarre reality of US culture, especially in Florida”.

But, he mentioned, the rising ridiculousness of actuality additionally introduced a problem.

“Something we think about when we’re talking about satirising American culture is just how over the top actual life has become,” Mr Livingston mentioned. “How long can Rockstar satirise a culture that’s gotten so ridiculous on its own?”

Many viewers of the trailer commented on the recurrence of the “Florida Man” meme, a time period which has turn out to be a catchall for the outlandish behaviour captured in Florida headlines.

Dmitri Williams, a professor on the University of Southern California who research video games, affect and know-how, mentioned: “I think there’s more than a little winking at reality here.”

“If you can pivot off the headlines, you’re starting from a place that people know or have a feeling about, rather than inventing some new world from scratch,” he instructed the BBC.

“And that’s what Rockstar is good at. They start with the stereotype.”

But as a lot as the sport’s creators are good at reflecting actuality, Mr Williams mentioned they’ve additionally performed a job in shaping it.

He mentioned the Grand Theft Auto sequence launched a stage of freedom and transgression that captured the hearts of avid gamers, now a “devoted audience”.

“You could go anywhere, or do anything,” he mentioned. This consists of every little thing from consuming a burger to capturing a cop and soliciting a prostitute.

The unprecedented freedom and violence of earlier GTA video games has made information headlines of its personal, drawing a number of lawsuits, considered one of which was filed by former first girl Hillary Clinton, one other of which reached the Supreme Court.

For some, no matter accuracy, GTA 6’s depictions of Florida’s crime and chaos have been too overbearing and one-sided.

Nicole Haboush, senior constitution and gross sales supervisor for TJB Super Yachts situated in Palm Beach, mentioned: “I was a little upset by the video, because I’m like ‘where is this’. It was kind of shocking. It doesn’t depict the Miami that I’ve ever seen.”

Ms Haboush mentioned the folks and locations proven are very completely different than what she encounters throughout occasions just like the Miami Boat Show and Art Basel, the place she mingles with purchasers able to spending as much as $200m (£159m) on a “mega yacht”.

“We try not to be around areas that would be having theft and violence,” she mentioned.

But for others, their response to the video was much less unsettling.

“For all the kind of [heat] that Florida gets about being crazy, we live up to our reputation,” Jose Duran, a Miami nightlife and tradition journalist, instructed the BBC. “I think the pulse around here in south Florida is that people are excited.”

“In some ways, it’s a point of pride – weirdly enough for some people – just how crazy Florida can really get.”

Mr Duran mentioned the trailer delivered as anticipated for a recreation that “is all about the things you’re not supposed to do in real life – stealing cars, killing people, beating people up”.

“I don’t take offence to [the video], but I see how some people could,” he mentioned.

Mr Duran mentioned he shall be reserving his actual judgement for when the sport is formally launched – in 2025.

“It’ll be a different story when the game actually comes out and people can start dissecting things.”